Given the knowledge that this could very well have been Pixar's last movie for Disney, early previews didn't exactly pre-suppose a fabulous last-dance for the troubled twosome. The idea of having non-human characters be anything other than cutesy animals or cutesy toys was strangely unsettling, and the idea of making them cars seemed somewhat fantastical. A lot of questions immediately sprung into my mind (given a lack of limbs how do they actually produce anything, where do babies come from etc) and none of these were really answered. Instead of the movie existing in a parallel universe in which humans are blissfully unaware of the sentient existence of our heroes we have a parallel Earth in which cars and other mechanical lifeforms (blimps, helicopters) are the primary creatures. Even the bugs are, well, VW Bugs. It's kind of like the Transformers without any actual transformation. Boo.
The main problem with Cars is that it is only brilliant. That's the problem. Pixar have set the bar so high for themselves that anything less than amazingly fantastic will be seen as a disappointment. While I was also less than overwhelmed with The Incredibles and Finding Nemo (later reversed on DVD appeal) the problems with Cars run a little deeper. For one it's not as clever as it's predecessors. There's less humour to be had around the edges of the film, and its characters seem to be drawn with a broader brush. Unlike the similarly ensemble-based Toy Story you don't really feel any great joy when they're on the screen, leaving a great deal of the movie in the hands of Owen Wilson, Paul Newman and Bonnie Hunt as the three main protagonists. Newman is excellent, perfectly cast as the gruff old town elder with a secret, but Bonnie Hunt, an otherwise amusing actress, seems oddly cast as Sally, the Porsche Carrera Wilson's character Lightning McQueen is drawn to. Perhaps it's because, at 45, she seems somewhat too old to be a young love interest, even in an animated movie. Wilson, one of my favourite actors, is also a little out of place. While on the face of it a perfect choice for the abrasive and egocentric young racecar, his laidback persona occasionally clashes with the need of McQueen to feel imprisoned and helpless in the small town of Radiator Springs.
He arrives in the tiny backwater town a hero, but obviously for this type of film not a single person knows who he is, or that he is tied for first place in the Piston Cup (think NASCAR), with the penultimate deciding race to be held in California only a few days hence. His attempt to get there (after his support truck accidentally dumps him on Route 66) lands him in hot water with the local judiciary and he is forced to spend valuable practice time fixing their road and making friends with the locals. All very pleasant, all very Pixar. It is this 'locals reform city slicker' cliche which is the films biggest drawback; it's simply been done too many times for Pixar to be able to properly re-engineer it the way they have with other old ideas. As a result plot pointers are gratuitously obvious (I won't spoil them for you here though) and you have little doubt as to exactly how it's going to all plan out.
That said though the film is still quite excellent. As I made clear, just because it's not up the usual high standards of its predecessors doesn't mean that it's not still a superbly crafted movie, quite above the usual fare. The animation is, obviously, still a notch above most competitors work, and while the idea of using cars as the protagonists is not completely succesful it's still a very brave act. It also allows for many visual jokes that have never been seen before, along with others that have you grinning through the obvious brilliance of them. The cars themselves can be aged or identified quite clearly due to when they produced in the real world. McQueen and Sally are both recent designs, but Doc Hudson (Newman) is a 50s muscle car, redneck comic relief Mater (Larry the Cable Guy) is a rusty 60s pick-up, and old-timer Lizzie is a Ford Model T. Very clever.The designs for Jay Leno and Arnold Schwarzeneggar will also have you rolling in the aisles. While the film doesn't abound in background humour it is still very fresh and new for the most part and, possibly due to its simplicity, the plot motors along at a decent pace. Despite it's ever-so-few flaws Cars is still a worthy Pixar release and a deserving box office winner. |
